Clementine
by Cecyli
Summary: The new girl in town, the cousin of Tyler, the girl with the evil step mother. That's Brinly. ReidxOC
1. Geraldine

Disclaimer: I don't own anything worthwhile, especially the Sons.

She is like a clementine: if you peel away the mask of confidence and sarcasm, you will find something completely different inside …

---

It was just after Christmas in Essex County, Massachusetts, and the town of Ipswich was gaining a new family. Well, 'new' being a rather deceptive word. In truth, the family lived in Ipswich one or two generations ago, but relocated itself to Aspen, Colorado in 1981.

Almost a year ago, the mother of this family—Corliss Simms—died in a tragic vehicular accident in which she drove off of a cliff. The family was left broken, and Wendell Clement, the father of this family, had a nervous breakdown. He remarried only 6 months after his wife's death. His four children, Liam (22), Brinly (18), Leilah (16), and Sophia (4), felt that their father betrayed them by having gotten married so soon. Brinly suspected something was awry, but couldn't place her finger on it.

Seeing as both parents of the Clement children grew up in Ipswich and attended the elitist school known as Spencer, Wendell and his new wife—Geraldine—thought that Massachusetts (especially Ipswich) would be a good change for the three youngest—Liam stayed behind in Colorado so he could finish his undergraduate degree.

Having been ripped from a social life in which the two teen girls were well-liked, they were apprehensive about going somewhere new—not to mention, they also very much disliked their father and step-mother for 'destroying their lives.' Wendell tried to placate his children by telling them how "lovely it would be to live near family," but, in truth, his children couldn't care less about family—seeing as it had held up so well in the last year.

The family moved into the home (more like homes, as it was rather large) in which Corliss Simms grew up. Brinly had mixed feelings about this. For one, it was her mother's home, and she could almost sense her presence. Two, it was her mother's home, and Geraldine was unwelcome in it.

And this is where our story begins: Brinly glaring at Geraldine as the woman unpacks boxes of Corliss' things, and Geraldine—hopefully—not noticing.

---

Honestly! These things did not belong to _Geraldine_, they belonged to, my mother, Corliss Simms—and in effect, her children whom she willed them to—_not Geraldine_. But, Geraldine was touching them as if they were hers, adorning the dusty shelves with them and arranging them as Geraldine wished.

I despise the woman. I hated the woman to her inner core. But there was nothing I could do seeing as my father wouldn't hear of his children insulting his new wife. Well … so much for fathers.

Geraldine broke me out of my murderous thoughts with her silky smooth voice, "Brinny, dearest, I believe that box over there," she pointed to the other side of the living room, "is yours. Could you take it up to your room, please?"

The woman's voice was sweet and cold at the same time. It was like a kindergarten teacher talking to a child they really didn't like. I knew what she was up to. I was being gotten rid of under the guise of unpacking boxes that could easily wait until later. I suspected that my step-mother was going to steal a trinket that did not belong to her. But I consented, being careful to keep my expression blank—no use letting the woman know what I was thinking, right?

Once in the solace of my bedroom, I dumped the box on the floor. I didn't feel like unpacking. I'd already been doing that for two days—it was quite a large house with quite a lot of stuff. While the work helped me to vent my frustration, it didn't dissipate the feelings of loneliness.

My two younger siblings were keeping to themselves—and out of the way of our step-mother—and my older brother wasn't answering his cell phone. Didn't he know that I needed him?! Of course not, he was too busy living his life and catering to his girlfriend's every need, I thought bitterly.

I inhaled deeply through my nose, and exhaled. I needed to take a walk. A long one.


	2. A BAR!

Disclaimer: I don't own Covenant.

My favorite thing about my mother's childhood house was that there was a large, thick forest stationed behind it. This provided me with the privacy to scream my lungs out, cry, and the best of all … Use without anyone knowing it. My Using resulted in a twenty foot diameter clearing.

I'd had been so angry at my father for being a traitor, my brother for abandoning me, my mother for dying, and just about everything else I had built up inside.

The power built up inside of me like a flood, and billowed out of me. The result: a twenty foot clearing in the middle of a densely populated forest. But, the plus side is that I felt better, although I was now very much out of breath.

Now, here's the thing about Using. A first born male gets his power at thirteen and ascends—at which point he gets _more_ power—at eighteen. Well, since I was neither a male, nor a first born, I got my powers at thirteen, and at eighteen … a cake. Whatever. It seems the Power is a male chauvinist. Of course, there are ways to get stronger powers without ascension, but most witches and warlocks won't go those sorts of routes. Most.

Anyways. I practiced some deep breathing techniques to calm down. In through the nose, out through the mouth: yoga was a godsend.

My Blackberry vibrated in my pocket, telling me it had received a message of some sort. I pulled it out and pushed the trackball to see that Tyler Simms, my cousin, had sent me a text message at 5:34pm. I opened the message: "I'm at ur house. Ur dad said u went out … where r u?" Well, I'd least he'd used punctuation.

I hit reply: "The forest." Within a minute I got a reply back: "That tells me a lot … lol. I think I'm pretty close to finding u ne ways."

"Wow, so I was closer than I thought!" yelled a male voice only a few seconds later. I turned around to the direction that the voice came from to see my cousin Tyler … and Tyler's friend? It seemed he had brought some blonde guy. Great. Tyler would probably figure that the Godzilla-sized clearing was from her having Used, but what would she tell the other guy? Oh, um … the cows did it? Yeah, right. But, alas, Tyler to the rescue, "Did something explode here?"

"Dunno," I lied.

"Hm," he responded, nodding. "Awesome. Anyways, this is Reid. Brinly, Reid." Reid stuck out his hand in a nonchalant sort of way.

I shook it, but looked at my cousin as I did so, "What are you doing here?"

"Well, we," he indicated himself and his friend, "thought you might need a break from all the unpacking. We're heading to Nickie's if you want to tag along." He smirked at the dirt smeared across my face. I'd gone a tad overboard I guess. "You might want to shower and change first though. You look like you rolled out from under the local bridge."

The corners of my mouth twitched without me telling them to, "And how do you know I didn't?"

He shrugged and smiled, "I don't."

I laughed as I started walking in the direction of the house. "Well, if you want to hang out with Lei for a bit back at the house, it won't take me long to get ready."

***

By 6:30pm, I had showered and changed into a clean t-shirt and jeans, and was getting into Ty's Hummer. Lei had managed to talk her way into going with us, but she was taking _forever_ to get ready. I sighed and shut the door as Tyler started the engine. No point sitting in a cold vehicle.

"Will she be much longer?" he asked.

I shrugged, "No, idea. Depends on what she's doing…"

"Probably giving herself a 90210 make-over," muttered Reid. He was clearly not happy with having the 16 year old tag a long.

"Here she is, let's get going," said Reid as Lei got in the vehicle.

Twenty minutes later, our group of four was entering Nickie's. We were met with the overwhelming sounds of people talking, a couple pool games, television sets, and foosball—and those were just the sounds that I could pick out. Places like this drove me crazy because the sounds always made the spaces seem smaller.

"Hey, there's Caleb and Pogue," Reid said, nodding to two guys that were in a corner with a fair, blond-haired girl and a dark brunette.

"Come on," Tyler said to us as he and his friend made their way through the crowd to their other friends. I grabbed my sister's hand and trailed after Tyler. Both of us girls were petite, but Lei was even more so. In this monstrous crowd, I didn't want to take the risk of my sister getting body blocked somewhere.

Tyler immediately began introducing us to everyone at the table as soon as the we caught up. "Guys, these are my cousins, Brin and Lei," he said, pointing to each of us in turn. "Girls, this is Caleb, Sarah, Pogue, and Kate."

"Nice to meet you," said the one called 'Caleb'. He had a deeper voice, and was strongly built, although not as built as his friend 'Pogue'. "Tyler told us you were moving to Ipswich. Are you going to be going to Spencer?"

I nodded and smiled, "Yeah, me and Lei are moving into the dorms in the next week."

"Oh, yay!" piped in Kate.

"Yeah, we need more girls in the dorms," Sarah said.

"To balance out all the testosterone…" Kate added.

I nodded politely. I didn't feel like saying much and didn't really know how to respond. The two girls were just so … drop dead gorgeous? I didn't think I could compete. Also, they were _way_ too outgoing. It was unnerving.

"So, do you play any sports?" Pogue asked me.

Tyler snickered, to which I rolled my eyes and smiled. "I run cross-country and I do yoga." Tyler didn't consider those to be sports.

"Do you swim?" Reid asked with a slight mischievous tone.

"No."

"Damn," he responded. He was probably less interested in seeing me swim and more just wanted to see me wearing just a swim suit.

"Well, Spencer's all about the swimming scene, but we have the other sports too," Kate informed her.

"And what about you, Lei? Do you swim?" Caleb asked my sister.

Leilah snorted. "No."

"Lei doesn't do _anything_," Tyler commented.

"I do too!" she exclaimed, derisively.

"Oh, yes, she's perfected the art of sitting on her—" but I didn't get that last word out because someone shot the little foosball soccer ball at me. That someone received a glare from the four boys. Apparently the boy didn't care. In fact, he seemed rather pleased with himself.

"Aaron," noted Reid. He picked up the ball, and threw it back, barely missing Aaron.

"Reid! Knock it off! We're not getting kicked out again," Caleb said.

"I threw a little plastic ball at him, Caleb. It's not like I shot him," Reid frowned at Caleb, but changed his expression when he turned to Brinly, "Sorry about that. You'll learn that Aaron Abbot thinks he's pretty hot shit."

Tyler nodded, "He hit you on purpose." Not that I didn't know that already though.

I frowned, and looked over my shoulder to glare at the guy. He was grinning from ear to ear, trying to act debonair. I tossed him a dirty look and shifted my gaze back to our group. I knew exactly why he'd thrown the ball. New girl in town. Obviously single. Untraversed territory. Wait 'til the punk met my big brother. Then he'd wish he was a eunuch.

In any case, I ended up sitting down next to Tyler who sat next to Caleb in the circular booth. After I scooted in, Reid slid in next to me.

So, I was sandwiched between my cousin and a guy I didn't really know. Awkward. And Lei? Well, Kate patted the open space next to her, and Lei took that spot.

"So," Pogue began, rubbing his palms together, "who's up for drinks? I'll buy."

"I thought it was Reid's turn to buy?" Caleb sent an unreadable look towards Reid.

Reid laughed and shrugged, "I'm broke."

"How does a trust fund kid become broke?" Sarah asked.

Reid gave her a dirty look, which got a dirty look from Caleb. "That money's all tied up. Can't touch it," he responded.

"Aw, so you actually have to work for what you spend?" Kate asked him in a somewhat mocking tone.

"Yeah. Some of it."

"_Some of it_!" Pogue guffawed. "How 'bout not hardly _any_ of it?"

Reid glared at Pogue, who snorted in response. However, before either of them could 'get it on' my phone rang. It was the sound of _Pain_ by Three Days Grace. "Hm," Reid said, "Didn't peg you for the type."

I shrugged and checked the caller ID. It was my brother. "Hi. What's up?" I stuck my left index finger into my open ear. Reid let me out when I pushed him a bit, and I began to sift my way through the crowd towards somewhere quieter.

"Hey, kiddo. Is anyone gonna pick me up from the airport?" He sounded tired, but at the same time he also sounded like his mischievous self.

"The airport?"

"Yeah, like one of those places, y'know, where planes park and people get their relatives to pick them up from. The place where I'm stuck because I thought it'd be cool to surprise my three favorite sisters by visiting them."

"You're here? Like actually _here_ in this _state_, in _Massachusetts_?"

"That would be the place…"

"_Why_? Of all the places, why would you come _here_?"

"Hey, as much as I'd _love_ to harp on Massachusetts with you, I'm kinda hungry and don't wanna sleep here."

"So, get a taxi," she responded.

"Damn it all! Won't you _please_ come get me?!"

"I can't," I responded edgily. "I'm at a bar…"

"You're at a _what_?!"

"A bar. It's so loud in here, gotta go!" I was somewhat lying of course. It really wasn't loud in the little corner I'd found. I just didn't want to talk to him.


	3. Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

Disclaimer: I'm pooor. If I owned Covenant, I'd be non-poor. Nuff said.

Note from the writer: Sorry I left you all for so long! Nursing school is crazy. Finals were hectic. I had about 5 nervous break downs between the last chapter and this one. I'm still recovering from finals. Oh! I did change some things about the last chapters. I changed from the detached third point of view, to first person. I honestly can't write third person. It sounds too much like a detached, scholarly sort of thing. I get enough of that during the school year. So, to preserve my sanity and to make this story easier to write: we're now using 1st point of view. =)

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I felt bad about being rude to my brother, Liam, but only for a second. I was mad at him. Why did he have to come here? He was overprotective, and wouldn't give me any space as long as he was in town.

I frowned and made my way back to the group. Reid smiled slash half smirked at me—I honestly think that's just the way he smiles—and got up so I could slip back in to the rounded booth. He then resumed his place next to me.

"Who was that?" Tyler asked me. I wasn't sure if he actually wanted to know or if he was trying to change the subject from what was being talked about in my absence. Seeing the look Caleb gave my cousin, I think the latter was more accurate.

"Liam," I answered. "Apparently he's in town and needs a ride from the airport." 'A ride' my ass!! The boy has more Power under his belt than the energizer bunny. He could have just teleported home. No, he wanted to corner me in the car when I picked him up so he could ask how I was doing. Nosy prick.

Tyler's eyes lit up. He and Liam always got along well. "Oh! Do you want to go pick him up?" He sounded rather overexcited. Great. No understanding ally from my beloved cousin.

"Nope. I'm going let the boy suffer. He can walk to the house. Or he can wait for dad and the wicked witch to come get him," I responded.

"Wicked witch?" Tyler asked, confused. Then the Edison light bulb in his brain flashed on. "You mean your step mom."

"Yes, the wicked witch, or 'bitch,' as Lei and I say."

"Nice," Reid nodded approvingly, his naughty-boy smirk playing on his lips. He got a look from Caleb—which was a common occurrence—and he shut his mouth. Although, it was quite obvious to me—who was sitting next to him—that the clenching of his fists meant that his mind was saying what his mouth wouldn't.

"Are you still mad at him for going out with that one gi—" Tyler began before I cut him off. Honestly, the nerve! There were people around, and he was going to make me sound like the resentful sister who wouldn't share her brother.

"No!" I interrupted. "He can date whatever fat bimbo he wants."

"She isn't _that_ fat…" Lei defended.

"If her BMI isn't _at least _40, then someone changed the mathematical formula to get your BMI. Oh wait, or maybe it's just her ego that has a BMI that huge." To be honest, the girl wasn't physically fat. She just had an inflated ego.

"That's just mean," Lei frowned.

"No, it's the painful truth," I stated. "My brother is dating a whale."

"She's not a whale."

"A shark whale then."

"No, not a shark whale."

"KING KONG, and don't argue with me!" I frowned and flicked a fry from Tyler's plate at her.

A few of the boys snickered and the others were least trying not to smile too much. Lei, however, was not doing either. She looked like she could kill something at the moment—specifically me—without even touching it.

Tyler's phone was now ringing. He answered, "Tyler. Who's this?...Oh! Hey man!" _It's your brother_, he mouthed to me. I rolled my green eyes. "Oh, no. No drinking, just chilling…Like I'd let her drink! I remember the last ti--…Here she is." He handed the phone off to me and I frowned.

"Yeees?" I answered. I promptly rolled my eyes in response to what he said, "No one abandoned you…You can totally walk…Call Dad…BS…I'm. Not. Coming. Bye." I hung up and handed the phone back to Tyler. He started to say something, but I gave him a pointed look and he decided not to press the matter further. One thing he knew about women was when they were even slightly irritated not even vats of chocolate would help, and talking did no good. Best to take the hands off approach.

Reid, however, apparently knew _nothing_ about women. "So, you're not picking up your bro because he's smoozing a snob?"

"That about sums it up. But I'm not that vain. She's also a 'bee with a big itch.' She had the nerve to tell my mother that when she married Liam, she'd find a way to keep us three girls from getting anything of my mom's. I'll just leave it at none of us girls being too happy about our brother's choice in life partner." My frown deepened, "Then, when my mum died, she had the nerve to waltz into our house with a notebook. She wrote down what 'she was getting' and what we were getting."

Lei's eyes began to fill with tears, but she was a strong girl and held them back. Despite her having scolded me, she really did dislike our brother's girlfriend. "She's not even married to Liam—and as far as we know Liam's _not_ going to marry her—and yet she already thinks she's getting some—if not all—of our mother's things."

Tyler looked sympathetic after Lei spoke. "Wow, I didn't realize that _that_ was why you hated her."

"Well, that's why we hate her. The reason we're not too happy with Liam is because he lets her do it," I explained.

"Plus, he's nosy. He was never like this before our mom died—wanting to know what we were doing, who we were friends with. It's honestly like having two dads around with Liam in the mix. He thinks he's making up for mom being gone by being the extra parental."

Lei had pretty much summed up the whole situation. It was A.K.A. for, "Liam is a bossy know-it-all with a crazy biatch for a girl."

But that was okay. If he wanted to stay at the house that was fine. Lei and I had already applied for dorm space anyways. Spenser had an entire room available that we were taking. Of course, they tisk-tisked that we weren't going to dorm with class mates, and 'peers our own age,' but honestly? Who cares? Lei and I are tight despite the two years age difference.

So, that was our night on the town. It ended well. We had sodas, fries, chicken wings galore and plenty of pool. I liked being back in a small town.

However, later on was a different story…

Reid drove us home—he'd made a bet with Tyler and won; the prize was getting to drive the Hummer, plus a pant load of cash—and the entire time Ty was cracking jokes. It was a good time. Even Lei joined in on the joke making.

When we rolled into the driveway of my family's home, though, hell broke loose.

Liam was home—need I say more?

He'd apparently told our father that I was out 'drinking and carousing'. Tyler vouched that we'd only had soda and pool ball, but of course, Liam was the oldest so he must have been the more truthful of us.

I was grounded. For a month. This month would include the first three weeks of my stay at Spencer.

The grounding stipulations were as follows: No friends. No money. No internet. No phone. No TV.

Really? Thanks, Dad, for cutting me off from the world. And thanks, Liam, for making my already awful life worse. You're an awesome brother. Please, go die in a hole.

---

The end! Of this chapter at least. I honestly think that my keyboard is sticky. Oh well. Leave reviews, please.


	4. Groundings and Moving Day

So, I'm really sorry that between chapters 2 and 3, I'd left you since October (8 months without me updating this story?!). Anyways, now that summer is here, I'm going to try to update more often.

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.Groundings and Moving Day.

It was the first day of my sentence—the day right after a great night with friends at a local bar.

I'd gotten my books for the semester in the mail today, and I was reading through them, highlighting, and spending my time catching up to the rest of my classmates. I felt like Hermione Granger—but without the frizzy hair.

To be honest, I wasn't overly excited about joining the masses at Spencer. It was early January and the new semester was starting in a week and a half. I'd already missed a whole semester, and it wasn't like they were going to slow down for little 'ol me.

But that's okay. The classes were somewhat similar to the ones I'd been taking in Aspen, and really…it was my senior year and so long as I passed nobody really cared if I'd actually learned anything.

Colleges don't really even look at what you learned. They look at your grades and your entrance scores. I'd already done above average with the entrance exams—which I took in October—so really I just needed C's or above for my class scores. Easy.

I'd gotten offers already via the mail. Harvard, Yale, Columbia … all of them had offered me scholarships—some of them were even full ride. But really, I don't know if I _want_ to go to college. Sure, it looks good on resume, but all I wanted to do was just buy a small house in a nowhere town, paint, write and play music, and maybe start a small, indie-style jewelry business.

You don't need a degree for all that. Just common sense.

But society doesn't value common sense. It values yes-men, guinea pigs, and grovelers.

Essentially, that means I'm screwed. I'm not dumb enough for society.

Ironic, right?

What was also ironic was that Reid was throwing pebbles at my window…while I was looking out it. Like, I didn't see him sneaking through the woods to the side of the house where my window was? The loon. And loon number two joined him.

Tyler, being slightly smarter than loon number uno, didn't pick up a stone to throw at my window, but waived instead.

Loon number threw the cigarette he was smoking to the ground and smashed it with his toe. He nodded to me.

As quietly as was possible, I opened my window and poked my head out. My long, untied brunette hair dangled below me out the window. "What?" I demanded in a whisper.

"Do you want to go do something?" Tyler asked. "We can sneak you out."

"They're listening outside of my room for signs of life every half hour or so. No luck. Sorry." And I really was sorry. I hated being in here.

"Well," Reid began in a tone that sounded both mischievous and suave, "how about we come up there? Keep ya company. We'll be quiet."

I considered this for a moment. It wasn't a horrible idea. Well, except for the fact that I really doubted they could remain quiet. My parental and Liam would figure something was up as soon as they'd hear noise from my usually silent room.

"I don't think it'll work. Sorry. But I'll be at Spencer in a week just before school starts. Once I'm there they can't really enforce the grounding. I'd be living with _people_—friends—who have internet, phones, and everything else I'm grounded from."

Tyler nodded, but looked disappointed all the same. "Yeah. That's true. Oh well, we thought we'd try. I'll see you in T minus 6 days."

"Bye," I said as they started walking away. Reid turned to wink at me before they'd completely disappeared into the woods.

Then I was alone. Just six more days.

---

It was six, long, hellish days. I took my meals in my room—why would I want to eat with my 'family'?—and Lei, being the great sister she was, at with me. It was like a picnic three times a day on my quilt covered bed.

That was one of the many reasons why I adored my sister.

Soph joined us after every meal. Being the age she was, it was harder for her to escape my parents. I felt horrible that Lei and I would be leaving her alone in the house with our parents during the school year.

Lei and I made her a necklace she could palm when she missed us. It was a leather necklace with a Trinity pendant. We knew very well what the Trinity stands for religiously, but seeing as we were three very close sisters we thought the Trinity would be a good choice.

Every time Sophia saw our bags and boxes that were packed and ready to go to Spencer, she cried.

Right now, after eating our last lunch in this house until June, Sophia was curled up in my lap, teary eyed and clutching her arms around my waist for dear life.

I brushed her long blond hair with my ice cold fingers. She didn't mind the cold though. She would take my cold fingers touching her face for the rest of her life if it meant I wouldn't leave her. But I was leaving her.

I needed to be away from the house so I could concentrate on my last semester of high school. After that, I was taking what money I had and moving away.

Lei would take care of her after I left. When Lei graduates, she plans on moving in with me. Then, Sophia would really be alone. Unless something were to happen to our parents, she'd be stuck without us for a good fifteen years. But Lei and I already decided that we'd make sure she wouldn't feel alone—daily phone calls, letters, gifts, frequent outings, etc.

Maybe dad and Geraldine would let us convince them to allow Sophia to come live with us. They would get an early empty nest. They would see the benefit, but whether or not they'd go for it I wasn't sure.

Anyways, Tyler was coming to get our stuff. His Hummer was large enough to fit all of our bags in the trunk.

Geraldine gave us permission to take Sophie with us while Lei and I moved into the dorms. That would at least give her extra time with us.

A honk outside alerted me to the fact that Tyler had arrived.

Dad was out of town, so Geraldine thought that the whole 'no friends' rule could be disregarded so that Ty and his boys could help us move into the dorms.

Geraldine was not so horrible at times.

Liam, however, made up for it.

He kept saying that _he_ could help us move, and that we didn't need Tyler's help. I told him where to stick his crap.

Picking Sophie up so I could carry her on my hip, I went down the two flights of stairs to let Tyler in the front door.

When I opened the large oak doors—imported from our family home in England—it wasn't just Tyler at the door. It was Reid. My understanding had been that Tyler would get us to the school with our stuff and that the other boys were just going to help us unpack.

Oh well, it just meant that the bags and boxes would be cramped even more into the trunk. Maybe we'd have to take two trips. That was okay though. I was beginning to like Reid a bit.

"Hey cutie!" Tyler grinned, poking Soph in the ribs. She squeeled, and told him to knock it off.

She was four and disliked being treated like she was three. I didn't blame her. I'm 18 and still get carded for rated R movies.

But she was cute. That fact couldn't be denied.

"Sophie isn't heavy enough to be in a car without a car seat yet. I hope you realize that, Ty." I was specifically referring to his having brought Reid.

"Yeh, I know. It'll be a tight squeeze. I wasn't sure how much stuff you had, so I thought it'd be better to have more muscle. Where's Liam?"

"Geraldine sent him grocery shopping. He was pissing her off." I grinned. He'd been pissing me off as well.

Tyler shrugged, "Oh well. I thought he might like to help."

"He's not in the helpful mood," I replied, my jaw clenching a bit.

"Okay," he smiled knowingly.

Reid was getting bored. "Okay, okay. Cut the chit-chat. Where's the crap we're moving?"

I laughed. "Upstairs. Tyler can show you while Lei and I figure out the car seat."

He and Reid headed upstairs, and I called for Lei. "Let's go figure out the seat thing!"

"Coming!" came her voice from the kitchen. She'd gotten a craving for Geraldine's brownies which had just come out of the oven.

Geraldine had a lot of faults, but poor cooking was not one of them.

With Sophie holding my right hand, I grabbed the large car seat with my left.

In Massachusetts, a child has to be in a car seat until they are five years old and 40 pounds. Sophie was four years old and 36 pounds. Four pounds short and a year too young. Big bummer.

Lei came out to help while I was heaving the seat into the Hummer. She opened the other door so she could pull it from her side. It took us a good ten minutes to figure out how to buckle the seat in, but we did it.

Reid and Tyler were bringing their second load of boxes down when we excitedly proclaimed that we'd figured it out.

"Congrats," said Reid as he shoved his load of boxes into the trunk.

"We've just got one more trip. Be back," Tyler winked. He and Reid ran back into the house.

Just one load? Really? I looked in the trunk.

Sure enough just two duffle bags were missing. I raised my eyebrows.

"Hm. That definitely takes talent," Lei stated when she saw that almost all of their stuff had fit into the trunk of the Hummer.

"Well, it's a definite bonus that we'll only have to come back to return Sophie," I said quietly to Lei. Sophia still wasn't happy that she had to come back.

"Yeah, just don't tell her that."

Reid and Tyler came hauling out of the house. Reid reached the Hummer first, stuff his load into the trunk and held his hand out. "Fifty bucks, white boy," he said to Tyler.

"White boy?" Tyler repeated. He was out of breath as he shoved the remainder of the stuff into the vehicle. He pulled a fifty dollar bill out and handed it to Reid. "I'm as white as you are."

Reid smirked. "Yeah, whatev. Let's roll."

Lei and I helped Soph into her seat before getting in ourselves. When everyone was in and buckled up, Tyler started the engine and we were off.

My mouth dropped half an hour later when we arrived at the school. The brochure pictures had made the school look about a quarter of the size that it actually was.

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Please review =)


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